As Parliament considers the Government’s proposed EPC requirements for rental properties to be band C or above, David Smith, real estate partner at JMW Solicitors, says: “Only good quality new-build properties or those which have had significant upgrades are likely to reach EPC band C. This will be a big change. Moving to band E only affected around 200,000 of the least efficient properties based on government figures. Moving to a band C will affect well over 2m properties, approaching half the buy to let sector (depending on who’s figures you prefer).

“The approach taken by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in their proposal is difficult to understand as it fails to take into consideration the reality of properties in the UK. There are some new build properties which do not meet the new requirement of a band C EPC and older properties which will never be able to meet it, regardless of the owners’ best efforts and intentions.